The present disclosure relates generally to net shape manufacturing systems and, more specifically, to apparatuses and systems for powdered material delivery in net shape manufacturing systems.
At least some known components can be repaired and/or fabricated using a laser net shape manufacturing (LNSM) processes based on laser cladding and/or laser consolidation techniques. At least some known laser cladding systems enhance the surface properties of components locally with powdered materials melted by a laser beam. In addition, at least some known laser consolidation systems, while similar to laser cladding systems, enable a component to be fabricated through depositing multiple layers of powered material.
In at least some known laser cladding and/or consolidation systems, a laser beam generates a melt pool on a substrate, such as the component, into which powdered material is deposited. Concurrently, the substrate and the laser beam are moving relative to each other to facilitate fabricating the desired cross-sectional geometry. Consecutive layers may be additively deposited to produce a three-dimensional component. However, at least some known laser cladding and/or consolidation systems used for laser net shape manufacturing may produce varying results, such as layers with waviness and/or varying thicknesses. In addition, at least some known laser cladding and/or consolidation systems that use off-axis nozzles may have inherent clogging problems. As a result, component builds may be limited to small geometries, and/or may have frequent interruptions in the process runtime for nozzle replacement when trying to fabricate large components. Furthermore, at least some known laser cladding and/or consolidation systems have nozzle geometries that result in excessive powder stream velocity, which may lead to metallurgical defects in the cladding layers.